The day dawned uneasily and the wet warmth seemed incongruous with the lingering darkness. The air felt more like spring than the last throes of the autumn. A light mist blanketed the lowlands, blurring the scenery and dampening the sounds of the Hrumi horses. The clan faced a day’s ride to the Temple, having picked the meadow site for its proximity. Celillie’s proclamations of events coming to pass had become entrenched in the Hrumi imagination, spurring the clan towards the holy place. They set out on their horses before the sun had cleared the horizon.

Essa found Alize on the road. The patch covering her missing eye did not conceal the surrounding swelling, and she spoke with evident pain. “We’ll go south and then east of the Temple. I have no desire to announce our presence to the armies of the princes gathered at the Temple itself.”

“Armies?” Alize repeated.

Essa nodded. “We’ve had our scouts out for days. Nine of the eleven provinces are there, with just the Parousia and Balanjar armies not yet represented.”

“What about the Eastern Clan?”

“They await us. We have sent requests for reinforcements.”

Alize felt a wave of reassurance. The Hrumi were not without options to help themselves. She sorely wished she had conveyed that information to Kell.

At midday Sosje fell into step next to Alize. At first Alize assumed she had questions, more confessions, or concerns about the upcoming battle. But instead Alize realized that Sosje’s presence was much more innocuous: she sought Alize’s company. As they spoke Alize found herself smiling again.

Their conversations oscillated between adamant and thoughtful assertions about the Parousia government and soon drew in other Hrumi sisters. Alize recounted her impression of visiting Kell’s home, omitting Idir’s former Hrumi identity. The women listened and asked questions that surprised Alize. They found Idir’s pride in her life fascinating and pressed Alize to fill in the details.

So too did her sisters marvel at the descriptions of the towns Alize had visited and her pragmatic male companions. They wanted to know how the Sargons viewed the Hrumi and Alize struggled to articulate her experiences. Her sisters initially rejected her account of Kell’s adamant refusal to take Hrumi souls, but Dierdin emerged from the listeners to quietly verify Alize’s claims.

A few sisters began recounting stories Celillie had told them of the Sargons. Alize fully expected them to defend Celillie’s actions, but she was unprepared for how many also questioned Celillie’s intentions. Heated arguments broke out as the day wore on, broaching subjects far beyond Alize’s words.

When the clan reached the wetland, a sister approached her with a request from Essa to accompany her.

At the front of the Hrumi formation, Essa looked pale as she directed the clan into towards the wetlands. This would shield the Hrumi from the armies on the open steppes in the rolling hills just beyond. The trees rising from the muck were the tensest yet, assuring Alize of encroaching and inevitable danger. Through it all, they remained stoic nonetheless. Like warriors, Alize decided.

“Peace, Alize,” Essa greeted her.

Alize bowed her head. “Peace.”

“Our clan is moving east against a Kogalok army, yet I don’t know why they hunt us. Why now?”

After some initial stalls, Alize found her voice and told Essa everything that had happened with the echoes and the Magi and the Sargons. Essa inquired about Onder, and Alize could only say she knew not his location nor how to contact him.

The clan neared the Temple at twilight. It sat poised on a mountain cliff and reflected golden in the fading light like a steady sun to the surrounding universe. Its massive archway faced the steppes and marked the entrance to the holy arena. On either side, large looming stone edifices swept towards the arch, with columns hewn into the rock. The Temple’s immense gaping windows were a testament to a time without war, to have windows so large.

Fires lined the steppes below, revealing the cramped assembly of representatives of various princes – all soldiers and Sargons sworn to pursue the Hrumi. Their presence mandated that the clan avoid detection by trudging knee deep through the nearby wetlands.

“I wish,” Essa said, shaking her head, “we could find out what Hesna knew. Celillie demanded that she conceal the details of their disagreement, and to my knowledge, Hesna honored that. But it was something surrounding your initiation Alize, and that’s probably your best clue about your role in all this. The Hrumi have truly let you down,” Essa sighed. All her expressions looked more severe with the gash on her face.

Alize reacted in surprise, “Celillie bears the crime, not the Hrumi.” She could not lay that blame on them. That would change things. “This clan is everything to me – during my exile, I felt like I didn’t know who I was.”

“Then we have let you down again!” Essa groused. “Our goal is not, Alize, to make our clan members become dependent on Hrumi identity! It’s to make our sisters strong enough to face whatever challenges befall them!”

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Alize blinked. To hear that from someone else’s mouth was so bittersweet. “That’s what Hesna said.”

“And she was right!” Essa exclaimed, “Celillie has done us all a disservice – women became Hrumi to protect themselves and to learn to navigate this treacherous world. What have we become now,” Essa lowered her voice, “but thoughtless adversaries? If you, by all appearances a Hrumi, can collaborate with a Sargon, then why on earth are we devoting our lives to fighting them?!”

Alize could scarcely believe these words. Essa’s clarity dwarfed even her own. “The Sargon said as much to me yesterday. He desperately wants to convince the Hrumi that no one seeks to soultruss us, and that Jorin wants peace.”

Essa blinked. “Do you believe it?”

“I can’t believe it. Yet the Sargon never gave me a reason not to.”

“Well.” Essa pursed lips. “That’s asking us to take quite a risk, to believe them. And even if it were true, peace is never inevitable. It has to be built like a wall, stone by stone, each one perfectly placed to withstand the forces on either side that will try to tear it down.”

“How can peace be like a wall?” Alize frowned. “A wall would divide us.”

“Hmm,” Essa exhaled. “Perhaps I make a poor authority on peace. I don’t have much experience. Celillie focused on Hrumi cohesion above all – and our animosity of the princes played a crucial role. But what you say makes me certain that we should have differentiated between the different princes. We have lost so many opportunities,” Essa sighed, “and spent years thinking that the death of our sisters amounted to a victory. How is that any better than what we accuse them of doing?”

“Do you think we can make peace with Jorin?” Alize asked. She found herself wondering if they were the first Hrumi to speak ever these words aloud. She and everyone else had never been invited to this conversation.

“It would depend on his terms,” Essa mused. “According to the princes, they have good reason to hate us.”

Alize cleared her throat nervously. “You mean the poaching.”

“So he told you? It’s a heady accusation, but that doesn’t make it true. The princes have no incentive to see our actions as rescues because it only emphasizes their own impotence in protecting vulnerable children. And with the rise of the Kogaloks in the Ginmae Province, we’ve been swamped with orphans for over a decade. We haven’t had the resources to continue rescues in the other provinces at nearly the same rate.”

“But,” Alize remembered Kell saying the government kept records of every report, “the governments say the incidents are increasing.”

“They’re lying. You and I both know that. The question is why they would say that.”

Alize had no response to that but she had plenty of other uncertainties. “But if the poaching truly amounts to rescues, why was I not informed about it? I had nothing to defend myself against the Sargon’s accusations.”

“All that we withheld is that sometimes the parents complain to the governments. They were always rescues.” Essa said. “We’re talking about families who commit extreme violence against their own children. They aren’t upset to lose their daughters; they’re upset to lose their power. But they can make a compelling case when they want to, about stolen children and injustice. In the past, their claims struck a chord with our members. So leaders long before Celillie deemed it far easier to generate consensus around a simplistic half-truth than anything nuanced. It keeps us united. It keeps our community alive.”

“But,” Alize prodded with some hesitation, “what if it’s not true? What if we shouldn’t be taking those children?”

“Well, facts have limited value when you’re telling people how to feel.”

“Then it could also be true that the High Princes doesn’t want our souls! And what of all the other stories? The Deku, the Kogaloks-”

“The Hrumi have first-hand evidence of the Deku soultrussing, that I know. And the Kogalok Soul Eating you have seen with your own eyes. The stories we tell may be embellished, but those facts are true.” Essa shook her head gently. “I begin to see why Celillie felt threatened by you, Alize.”

Alize scoffed, “You can’t raise a child to revere truth but expect her never to seek it herself.”

“Then it would appear we have raised a dangerous generation. Hence the secrecy about the poaching which, for the interim, I will ask you to honor.”

“You have nothing to fear from me Essa.” Alize responded, “But I trust you will not pursue Celillie’s precedents without introspection.”

“Peace sister. I have already lost half my vision to Celillie. I will not let her guide me unwittingly with what remains. There is work to be done.”

“Well,” Alize murmured, “do it carefully.”

“Do it right, you mean.”

“I would be a fool to think it so simple.” Alize forced a grin. Around them the damp decaying stench of the wetlands had become almost unbearable and Alize forged ahead with a combination of strength and no small amount of will. She caught Essa’s eye. In an act of perfect comradery, they both made faces at each other.

And in that moment, the world shattered.

At first Alize could not discern what caused the shift, but in her mind she became aware of a female echo bearer viewing her from afar, evaluating her. The scene around the woman became clearer and Alize saw she held a Mage’s staff and her robe had the purple collar of a High Mage. She looked upon Alize and blinked with thoughtful amazement. As Alize’s vision expanded it revealed Onder and the Sargons standing beside the woman.

“Your bearer is just west of the Temple, beside the bog,” the words of the High Mage sounded in Alize’s mind. “Go ahead and reconstitute the shield.”

But scene continued stretching and other echo bearers came into view. Slowly their faces began turning towards Alize. She could sense the putrid presence of the gray magic bearers. The magic had been divided ever further into the bodies of so many Kogalok soldiers – both the Soul Eaters and the Soulless. Alize tried to evade their gazes. She focused on Onder as her shield continued dissolving

He remained in the forefront of her mind just long enough to exclaim, “Nocturne! Someone else – the shield! It’s spinning out of my control!”

The reason loomed large as the pale-face Conjurer emerged into Alize’s consciousness once more. His gaze seared through her and Alize had the harrowing sensation that with the shield down he learned more than just her location. Images of her childhood flashed through her mind against her own will or desire and the Conjurer presided over it with smug satisfaction. He diligently maintained his distance, becoming elusive in Alize’s mind as she tried to use the connection to exploit him.

Instead he faded into the background and Alize drowned in the sea of faces before her. As evidence of the Kogalok collections, the numbers of the pure echo bearers had noticeably diminished since Alize’s time in Venin, and those remaining regarded her with muted hope.

In place of the former echo bearers, others came into Alize’s view, emerging like an army cresting a hill. The Kogalok magic bearers stood strategically positioned around the Temple and its environs. With one mind each Soul Eater and Soulless turned their faces towards Alize.

She could see their intentions as clearly as the fading sun. “Essa we’re under attack!”